Feast
of St. James
Fr.
Philip N. Powell, OP
St.
Albert
the Great, Irving
Mama Zebedee is on a mission! She's out to secure positions of power for her sons in the coming Kingdom. Clear-eyed, purpose-driven, and shameless, she surveys the political landscape and decides that her boys deserve to be the right and left hand of Christ the King. The other disciples balk at this brazen request. We don't know how the sons themselves react. Maybe they put her up to it. Or maybe they're behind her, whining with embarrassment, “Mommmm...!” Regardless, the request is made. And Jesus, either exasperated or just surprised, answers: “You have no idea what you're asking for!” And why doesn't she or the sons or the other disciples understand this self-serving petition? Because they have yet to grasp what the Kingdom of God is or how it will operate. In their minds, Christ's kingdom will be like every other kingdom on the face of the Earth – a purely political entity that governs through legalized violence, taxes, laws, and the exercise of worldly power. Because they do not understand, Jesus attempts to clarify the issue for them: “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” They reply, “We can.” They don't get it. But they will.
We know how things end for James and the other apostles. They die bearing witness to the Gospel. Only John makes it to a natural end. Had they known how things would turn out, they might've reconsidered their commitment to Christ. As it is, they stick to him, claiming their readiness to drink the cup he drinks. That chalice – the cup he drinks at the Last Supper – is the chalice of his destiny; that is, a sign of who and what he is for the salvation of the world. Jesus is referring to Ps 11 and the Biblical notion that “drinking the allotted cup” is to accept what God has planned for you. Christ's allotted cup is to die in sacrificial love for the redemption of sinners. Can the Sons of Zebedee and the other disciples accept their own cups? To be prominent in the Kingdom of God means to die while serving the lowest among us. There is no worldly power or prestige or wealth or celebrity attached to serving the lowest. There is be no pomp or parades propping up an inflated ego, or grand monuments marking the faux achievements of a hollow king. If you will be great in the kingdom, you will be small in the world. And being small in the world means losing the Self in surrender to God and becoming His perfect instrument of mercy.
Keep Christ's Cup squarely in mind this year. We are quickly falling into another Presidential election. The Enemy is excited b/c he gets to tempt us with the lie that God's kingdom can be and will be established on Earth if – and only if! – we vote for the Right Person. Paradise on Earth is always just one more election away, just one more politician in office. If we could only get Our Guy or Gal in office, then all would be well. It won't be. It can't be. For the simple reason that the Kingdom is not of this world. We must do our duty as faithful followers of Christ and participate as citizens. Vote, pay taxes, obey the law. But none of that means that we believe the lie that paradise is possible before the second coming of Christ. “Put no trust in princes,” the Psalmist says. Nor politicians nor bureaucrats. “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.” Ever heard a politician use that as a campaign slogan?
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